COMMUNITY
A thank you from
the Darge family
A message of thanks from Trevor (Wb
79-83) and Sue Darge, Harrison (PS 20072008, Wb 2009-2013) and Ruby.
On 27 July 2013 a fire broke out in our
recently renovated home in Menora, where
we had lived for 20 years. It began as a
mere wisp of smoke, fortunately during the
daytime, but by the time the fire brigade
arrived it was burning out of control.
Although the firefighters did a marvellous
job, within a few hours the whole upper
storey had been burnt through and water,
smoke and rubble filled the ground floor.
The next few days were a blur. We had only
the clothes on our backs and almost all
our appliances and bedding materials were
gone. In the months that followed came the
realisation that the entire extension had to
be removed and most of the ground floor
required extensive rebuilding.
Amongst the anguish were some bright
shining lights. Through the kindness of
Perth College we were given a place to live
while we sought rental accommodation.
Guildford Grammar School offered pastoral
care immediately and the School went to
work. New uniforms for Harrison were
organised in a flash and his teachers kindly
rounded up school books and new notes,
crucial in his final year of school.
As if that wasn’t enough, Graeme Plummer
and Ruth Warden, President of the Friends
of Senior School, quickly arranged for word
of our situation to go out to the parents,
asking whether any parents might have
household items to spare to help us in
the short term. Sue and I will never forget
the feeling of walking into the School
and seeing literally piles of goods of all
descriptions and other kind donations
covering a table.
In the next months these items helped us
resume a normal life while we started the
process of rebuilding the house. We are
pleased that after a long 18 months we
were finally able to move back into our
house this February. The items we no longer
used were passed on to the Salvation Army
to help others.
As a schoolboy at Guildford Grammar
School I couldn’t really understand what
the Headmaster meant when he called the
School a community. Sometimes it is only
in the face of adversity that you realise the
strength of character and generosity of a
school and its students and parents. We
remain in your debt.
Mr Trevor Darge (Wb 79-83)
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